Patricia Burke Brogan joined the noviciate of the Mercy Sisters at the convent of St Vincent, Newtownsmith, Galway at the end of the 1950s. It was before the reforms of Vatican II had relaxed rule of the heavy medieval habit, the shorn hair, and a constant reminder ‘to keep custody of the eyes’. What was called ‘discipline’, which was nothing less than outrageous bullying, was meted out on the novices by some of the older nuns, in a cutting and wounding way. The nuns were hard on each other.

SMASH-HIT play The Devil’s Céilí comes to the Black Box Theatre next weekend, fresh from a sell-out run at Dublin’s Peacock Theatre, and from winning the 2014 RTÉ All-Ireland Drama Festival in Athlone.

The iconic Blackrock Diving Tower could soon receive a face lift as Galway City Council is currently seeking tenders for the rehabilitation project which is estimated to cost in the region of €100,000.

The iconic Blackrock Diving Tower could soon receive a face lift as Galway City Council is currently seeking tenders for the rehabilitation project which is estimated to cost in the region of €100,000.

A meeting of the residents of the Salthill area was held in the Pavilion Ballroom in June 1934 for the purposes of considering the necessity of erecting a church in Salthill. They unanimously expressed the urgency of building one to cater for the religious needs of about 300 families representing approximately 400 residents and a large number of summer visitors. At that time there were about 200 families from the Bishop’s Gate to Rockbarton and there was provision made for the building of close on 100 houses.

A report from the Educational Commission in Ireland in 1826 lists two hedge schools in the parish of Castlegar. The first of these was at Merlin Park, built by the landlord Mr Blake. The 40 boys and 20 girls who attended got free tuition. The second school was at Ballygurrane, a few hundred yards north of where Scoil Colmcille Naofa stands today. It was a thatched house which doubled as a church on Sundays. Each pupil paid one shilling and eight pence per quarter. There were 30 boys and 15 girls on the rolls. The thatched house was accidentally burnt down in 1827, and the school transferred to a stable in the village of Castlegar. Here, without desks or books, the teacher named Duggan from Bohermore taught his pupils as they sat around on stones as seats. Each morning he rode out on his donkey from Bohermore. His salary depended on the few pence he got from his students. He taught the three Rs through the medium of English.